Evaluation

4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation

stages?

To create my actual documentary I used FinalCut Pro X. I used FinalCut to import, edit all of my footage and to even add sound, jingles, text and more. I found using this software much better than Apples free iMovie as it is much more comprehensive and can edit and cut a lot more smoother than iMovie. Using the Blade tool, I cut all of my footage more precisely to create fast cuts and shot reverse shots as seen in my documentary. I found there were far more text and background options such as my ‘paper’

background to utilise as well as a wider variety of transitions, although I refrained from using transitions as I believe it would look unprofessional and tacky, my most common used was ‘fade to white and black’.My main and only problem during my construction process was beginning in iMovie and trying to get lost footage over to FinalCut. To solve this I rendered the footage and imported it into FinalCut as a

whole video.

I used photoshop to create my advert and double page spread. I changed my advert and double page spread theme and wanted to give it a horror theme which juxtaposes what the actual documentary is about. The documentary is very light hearted and funny, however, I wanted to create a false advertisement to engage the audience. Following the common stereotype that all teachers are evil, I believed a horror theme would be relevant.I followed a dark colour scheme throughout my double page

spread and advert, using a brown and black colour palette to reflect the horror theme. The abandoned school images I believe took too much attention away from the medium shot of myself. To solve this I used a gaussian blur to blur the background image so it could contrast the primary image and the focus could be on that.I manipulated the primary image by darkening the brightness and decreasing the contrast. I then got the rubber tool and decreasedthe harshness to 0 and rubbed away the bottom of the image create a blending effect with the image to give it the impression it has dissolved.

I thought the background image also looked slightly boring despite it being distracting, so I created a light source coming from the ceiling to give it more of an abandoned look. I did this by using the pen tool to create the basic outline of the light, then gave it no fill. Then I used the colour curve to brightenit and then lowered the opacity. Then finally l used

the rubber tool to lose the edges.

To present my work throughout the research and planning and the construction process I used Web 2.0. I used many websites such as Powtoon, Prezi, Soundcloud, Youtube, Slideshare and many more to present my work, using a variety of presentation based programmes. All my coursework is presented on Blogger which is also what I used during AS. I keep my research and planning, construction and ancillary work on it so it is easily accessible and organised. I also used Youtube and other video based sites

to upload my documentary drafts, focus group videos, and interviews. This gives my research a more interactive and enjoyable experience rather than just using presentations to present my work. It also means i can receive feedback from peers and teachers in the comment section to improve my work.Other websites I frequently used were Prezi and

Powtoon which are interactive and more interesting forms of presentation compared to Slideshare. Slideshare only consists of uploading a presentation whereas Prezi and Powtoon allow u to create a fun presentation with transitions, colours and images etc.